Bizbeat: Burnsville gains businesses and awards are made

Two Burnsville businesses, Costco and Innovative Office Solutions, have won awards from the Dakota-Scott Workforce Investment Board.

Don Christensen, general manager for Costco in Burnsville, received the 2011 Business Champion Award. It is presented each year to a business that makes extensive use of the Minnesota Workforce Center.

Before opening in November 2010, company officials recruited, conducted more than 3,000 interviews and hired 220 employees using the Workforce Center location and connections. Since opening, the branch has set company records for the number of new Costco members it has brought in: more than 30,000, the company says.

"Costco has certainly been a huge boost to the area's retail mix, and it was a significant business for Burnsville to land," said Daron Van Helden, president of the Burnsville Chamber of Commerce.

The Dakota-Scott board gave its Bob Klas Sr. Entrepreneur Award to Jennifer Smith, who founded Innovative Office Solutions in 2001. The 70-employee firm provides office furniture, office and school supplies and maintenance supplies to businesses of all sizes.

Smith responded to the economic downturn by hiring laid-off sales and product specialists in October 2009. With the added staff, the company had its most profitable year in 2010, even after double-digit sales gains in the prior two years.

The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal ranked Innovative Office Solutions as the 16th fastest-growing privately held Minnesota company in 2011. Smith's volunteer activities include coaching children's track and basketball and teaching Sunday school.

Lakeville chamber names business person of 2011

Norman Oberto, owner of Imperial Plastics Inc., has been named 2011 Business Person of the Year by the Lakeville Area Chamber of Commerce.

The award, to be presented next week, is given to a chamber member whose contributions improved the business climate and made the community a better place to live and work. Imperial produces engineered plastic parts.

Oberto purchased Imperial Plastics in Lakeville's Airlake Industrial Park in January 1997. Applying his foundry experience and background in machining and other types of molding, he learned about making plastic components from his staff, which has tripled in size.

After several acquisitions, Imperial Plastics has grown from 50,000 square feet to 263,000 square feet in five locations -- four in Lakeville and one in West St. Paul. It also has two offices in China.

Rosemount gains two businesses, loses one

Rosemount officials this month welcomed a new health-care facility. Scott Chiropractic Clinic at 15067 Crestone Av. W. has opened for business in Celtic Crossing, a block south of County Road 42.

Travis Scott earned his Doctor of Chiropractic degree at Northwestern Health Sciences University in Bloomington in 2006. Since then, he has worked at chiropractic clinics in White Bear Lake and Bottineau, N.D. The clinic's website also says Scott offers nutrition and wellness advice, sports and other injury rehabilitation and therapies for people of all ages.

Rosemount also gained Greenleaf Tobacco last month. It offers cigarettes, pipes and more than 500 types of cigars, says owner Mohammad Mirib.

But in January, Rosemount lost a longtime business, Shenanigans Liquor, which the city once ran as Shamrock Liquors.

However, no one should run out of booze: the city has three liquor stores within two miles of Shenanigans.